#if you dislike another ship to the point where you start harassing people --you need to just log off of the internet

[ohnoitsthebat]

It's sad when you go from loving and enjoying a ship, to hating it with a burning passion and adding it to filtered tags and content.

[pinkyjulien]

I did not expect hostility over my Flat Chest mod, so I'll half acknowledge it and kill some of the assumption before they take roots in other people's minds

No, I did not make this mod *because* I refuse to support Na's flat chest mod

Initial Mod idea was a working "binder" for Fem, something you'd equip to flatten the chest- like a real life binder, basically. It's part of my To-Do list of June, for Pride

The mod evolved as I got more ideas, I also started working on a body replacer, it's basically ready to ship as well, but I decided against it; not to step on toes and causing confusion with two "flat chest" body mods, knowing there is also another one in the work from a fellow modder

(the binders themselves will come much later, and will be available for both fem and masc body frames!)

Again, the mod started as a "binder"- I mentioned it multiple times, either in servers where I started sharing the idea, and in the tags of my mod post

"Binders" are not costumes. They are gender affirming aid, something a lot of person use; I've made a couple of "wearable" / "switchable" body parts mods in the past already, including a trans masc vagina, I really hope you don't see this as a costume as well?

In the universe of Cyberpunks, implants and synth skin are used by everyone, for all kind of purpose; GNC people, trans people and gender-fluid people would probably use implants and cyberware to sculpt themselves, feel comfortable in their body

Who's to say some rich citizen wouldn't have some fancy switchable body pieces- hell it's even canon in game, Mr.Stud and Mrs.Midnight? Switchable boobs are already a thing, I don't see what's wrong with switching up for a flatter chest

The survey's results aren't out yet, so I couldn't know. But that's beside the point, as my mod isn't a "bandaid" for any issue this fandom may have

If the name is causing trouble, I'm open to changing it; but the main goal, again, was to flatten the vanilla fem V chest, and I think "flat chest" is pretty straight forward for nexus users

Mmmh. Sorry but, no

Everyone is different and handle their own space differently, and I do not want to support people who did me, or my friends, any serious mental health damage. Be it from harassement, witch hunt and whatnot

I won't be dragging in there old drama from 2 years ago, but I simply won't support someone who tried to get a friend of mine fired from their work place, threatening to send a 30+ pages google doc to their leads and boss, and dragging all of their personal beefs to the public on multiple social medias. They ruined my friend's mental health, and I simply won't forgive nor forget.

That is my right. And I wish people would accept and respect that.

I won't tell anyone who to support or what mod to use/not use, NOBODY should tell you what to do, what to support, who to like or dislike; and nobody can control who I must support and what I must do. Simple as that

And I'm glad the flat chest body mod exist for people who wish to use it! I'm offering another option that I'm sure some people will find useful

Thank you :)

People already gave me trouble in the past for "doing work that already exist"

Those past few weeks has been eventful when it comes to "drama" especially involving Zwei, who's notorious for having a modding monopol and gatekeeping ideas in general

Let's not bring that same mindset here, yeah?

Everyone is free to mod what they want, whatever body they want, to refit what they want!

Again, just to point it out, mod isn't there to fix a problem, that's just a mod I wanted to make

It's a brand new mod, meaning it needs refiting; I did not test the flat chest bodymod, nor tried the already existing vanilla refit. And I won't, for the reasons I cited aboved a few lines before.

I'm glad you agree! Nobody has to do things they don't want to

You call it disingenuous, and I call it having principles/self respect; again, crazy how different people are from one another, and how we just can't assume everyone work and react the same as we do

I see, I see, the name is a big issue; I'm open to suggestion, feel free to leave a reply and I'll see what catches my eyes

Cause It's still my mod, so I get to decide

Anyway, hope this cleared up a few things, and sorry this made people upset!

For everyone else, thank you for the support 🧡

[all-things-jily]

Ok but we get harassed for tagging ships that are in the post too just because there’s other ones mentioned

The fandom is supposed to be fun! You guys support harassment and bullying over fiction! The problem that needs addressing is the people who harass not the people who tag! There’s a way to get people not to tag btw it’s tell them nicely! Not act horribly! Jily fans been sending jegulus writers hate & writing “if you wrote jily maybe you’d get treated better” the problem lies with the way jily fans act & people will start biting back because people can only take so much.

OK so I was looking at this for some minutes, truly dumbfounded. Because it's like no matter what we say we're not being heard.

Rant below for those who want to avoid it lol

"You guys support harassment and bullying over fiction!"

I'm ?????? Where in the world have either of us who have spoken up done that? When have we ever said anything other than "tag your posts properly"? Don't these two sentences have completely different meaning? Who are these people that are harassing? Because harassment is never ok and we have not encouraged that. But if you think that simply telling a person who used incorrect tags to remove the extra ones is harassment, I'll have to tell you that no, it is not, it is a very normal thing to do actually.

Yesterday there were a few posts about asking people to tag properly and in response we got that "Jily fans are horrible and inhumane, they harass and bully, they're the worst people ever" and actually got harassed in response. Do you think there's anything normal and fitting in what happened and in that reaction?

"Jily fans been sending jegulus writers hate & writing “if you wrote jily maybe you’d get treated better” this is actually wild because NONE OF US in our community have done that or WANT that, we want to stay as far away from all of that as possible. If you have some anon trolls going around in the community, that has nothing to do with us, most of us are grown people who have been fans since books came out and ain't nobody got time for that, I'm sure most of us don't even know who your writers are or their accounts. In fact, you can tell just by wording of that message that it's clearly a troublemaking troll and not a serious fan, no normal human talks like that.

As for fandom being fun, YES, it's supposed to be fun! But this is where my words about it not being a group project come in, because what's fun for you is not fun for us! In fact, it's the opposite of fun, we dislike it immensely, it upsets us and puts us in a bad mood and it doesn't even belong in our tag. So why should we be upset every single day, going into our tag that's supposed to be a place of comfort and fun, seeing things that are not supposed to be there, when people can simply --- tag properly according to Tumblr guidelines? And this is not new, we've been put through this for years now, and we've been asking politely over and over and over and nobody is listening, and now that we've gotten louder - in our own tag - suddenly we're the bad guys and harassers. When should it be enough? So this part of the ask "people will start biting back because people can only take so much" was incredibly ironic, because we've been taking it for YEARS and now we aren't even biting back, we're simply asking to tag and posting silly memes in our own space but are still getting vilified.

I will also address the first point because I think it causes a lot of general confusion about tagging:

"tagging ships that are in the post too just because there’s other ones mentioned"

A ship tag is for posts that have positive mentions of that ship.

If a post mentions multiple ships and is "X is great, Y is good, Jily is bad, I don't like it anymore" - this is not for Jily tag;

If a post has "Jily were together for 2 minutes, broke up and then *insert 3 paragraphs gushing over another ship that were true loves*" - this is not for Jily tag;

If a post has a poly ship that includes James and Lily - this is another ship, not Jily;

If a post is a huge fanfic dedicated to another ship with James or Lily and then has the last sentence about Jily basically settling together - this is not for Jily tag, though I see how there could be arguments about it;

There are many other instances too that I can't think of right away at this moment, but basically there's nuance here and just because Jily is brought up in a post doesn't make a post about Jily and the tag is for people who love the ship and want to celebrate their love, and the last thing they want to see there is completely unrelated posts with random Jily cameo in them that do not even portray them in a good way. This last topic is a bit of a complicated one with slippery edges, but I hope it was still comprehensible.

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

What ships do you do not like?

Im saving Huskerdust for last. I have way too much shit to say.

Aside from weird illegal ones and also disgusting ones, I am a very big Sir Pentious x Cherri Bomb disliker. It couldve been good but theres like no chemistry and Cherri doesn’t seem to actually like Pentious for any reasons other than he kissed her and then exploded and also weird double penis joke. Said it before, I’ll say it again, Cherri does not need a boyfriend she needs character development. If you’re interested in more of my hatred I have this rant abt it here

Valentino x Vox is another that I hate. I feel like I don’t need to explain why but I will anyway. I know they’re technically not canon anymore, but idk how I’m supposed to enjoy a ship between two characters when one is Valentino and also knowing that it was previously canon that Valentino has shattered Vox’s screen multiple times. Honestly you can’t even be like “well the voxtagram posts arent canon anymore so he’s not abusing vox” because you’re like objectively wrong. In the first couple shots we see of Vox and Valentino together Vox has an entire glass thrown at his head. Very important detail, he nonchalantly dodges it implying that while we know this is a common occurrence for Valentino to have violent breakdowns, it is also a common occurrence for Valentino to throw things at him or try to injure him in some way. Not to mention he seems very unsurprised when Valentino takes his phone and breaks that as well. Vox is also forced to walk on eggshells around this guy with how he talks to him. There’s literally no way for it to be healthy at all.

While I love the concept of Charlie and Vaggies relationship, it’s entirely brought down by Vivzies inability to write women and her lack of care for wlw relationships. There’s a lot of good rants about this, but I have so little substance to mention on these two it’s kind of hard to talk on. Vaggie doesn’t have much character development and Charlie is just incompetent all the time in the canon show and the only interesting stuff we got was from episode 7 (very good episode btw)

Any Alastor ship ever. End.

I do not like Huskerdust a lot of the time. I don’t enjoy how the fandom does it a lot of the time because they don’t really consider the others boundaries and just are like “well they like each other now so they should kiss!” And I disagree with that very hard. For how it is in the show, the best i've seen is the little bit in episode 8 which I really do enjoy but obviously there was no build up to it really so I hardly have much to grasp and I have to do everything myself. Relationships take a long time. That goes hand in hand with my rewrite also. Angel has harassed Husk and other people multiple times and that’s not okay obviously but for some reason no one acknowledges that?? The first step of them ever getting together or even being friends for that matter is Angel apologising. I will be mentioning my fuckass rewrite again just as an example of what I’d do, so I apologise! Everything from this chunk till the end is about how my friend and I have tried to fix this dumb relationship. It’d take him a little to mention it, but for how I’ve done it with my friend he ends up going out to dinner with Husk after rewritten episode 4 events and after getting texts from Valentino he starts reflecting on how bad Valentino and other people objectifying makes him feel and has that “..shit im doing that to other people.” And they have a little talk about it where Angel apologises for acting that way and tells Husk to call him out if he started doing it again on accident.

And it's not a quick fix conversation either, they aren’t magically best friends now and they don’t suddenly start being lovey with each other, Angel doesn’t even list Husk as a friend yet in his mind and has a bit where he only lists two people as his friends. There’s also bits of rewriting where Angel is yelling at Husk and ends up getting upset to the point he indirectly hurts Husk by throwing a wine bottle at him and Husk steps on the glass while he’s walking out. They talk it out again and Angel has another small crisis about potentially starting a cycle of abuse because his own trauma is shaping how violently he reacts to minor situations. Both of them need to work on themselves before they do anything. Especially Angel when he’s developed a habit of snapping and has a mindset that he needs to physically fight any potential threat away from him and it's leading him to actually hurt people. While that isn’t the sole reason he's in hell he's still in hell he is an objectively bad person and Husk has his own problems too especially when dealing with Angel specifically, both of them have an issue of pushing blame off themselves or shaming the other in overly stressful situations even if they don’t mean to. Husk has a tendency to shame Angel for his coping mechanisms and even if he's well intentioned with his criticism he gives it in a very uncaring and harsh way and will sometimes default to saying “I didn’t actually care in the first place” even if he does. They currently are not ready to be in a relationship together by any means, but fights help them reflect on themselves and of course at least Angel is at the hotel to be a better person. Charlie talks to him often and shows him it’s okay to confide in other people but that he doesn’t need to tell someone everything and that he can keep things to himself, and then the help from Charlie leads to Angel apologising again and trying to do the same for Husk like listening to him talk about his own issues and then giving input on them or just casual banter and so on. Both of them desperately need to work on themselves and they’re trying to do it together and I think when they're ready they’ll probably the best matches for each other, but you can’t just skip over the issues, the issues are the entire point of growing, that's why they are at the hotel.

[pr-incey]

Here's my (probably not) hot take on anti-shipping: it represents an instinct found in pretty much all of humanity, and that is the instinct to label anything that makes you feel a negative emotion as morally reprehensible.

We really, really cannot afford to condone or encourage this instinct. I can't stress this enough.

You think my incest non-con whatever shipping is weird? It makes you uncomfortable/triggers you? Well, no fucking shit it's weird! I assure you I know it is. I don't care if you think it's weird. I don't care if you think I'm odd or weird because of it. I am, and I've known this since I was very young. Your dislike or discomfort isn't the problem.

The problem is the reaction to this discomfort. In case it wasn't clear enough: SOMETHING BEING DISGUSTING OR TRIGGERING TO YOU DOES NOT ≠ MORALLY WRONG.

I've been in online arguments with antishippers who start from one of the typical talking points ("it normalises it in real life", "it makes people think its okay", "it's triggering to survivors", "it's not a healthy way of coping"), but eventually they get to "Well, even though you're right, it's still gross/you're still a freak!"

And every time I'm like, ah. Here's the real root of the problem.

Beloveds, please. Your disgust is understandable, but PLEASE. If a ship is so revolting to you for any reason, problematic or not, PLEASE just do what you can to make sure you never come across it again. Block. Mute. Unfollow. Whatever. This isn't even for my own sake; I couldn't care less about what people I will never meet in the real world think about what I do to fictional characters in my free time. I'm an adult with a job and responsibilities and your angry words online won't stop me from doing what I like to think cartoon characters.

I'm so passionate about this subject because I live in a country where queer people are harassed, raped, and killed en-masse because it is 'disgusting' to people. I have struggled with depression for years because of this.

And before you type "I can't believe you're comparing homophobia to not liking your fucked up incest pedo ships", I need you to actually listen to me. If you can determine what is morally wrong based solely on your disgust or discomfort, what's stopping other people from doing the same? Racists, homophobes, terfs and the like? You do know how many of their 'moral' arguments stem from disgust and discomfort, right?

If you can't confidently point to tangible harm being caused by the ship, individual or art, you're better off just avoiding it. Yes, this also includes if it triggers you, unless it was specifically made to trigger you.

Off topic, but this also applies to so much more than ships. I've seen people get dog piled just for being 'unfunny'. It's why I am so staunchly against cringe culture as a concept, why I don't care what labels other members of the LGBTQ community use, why idgaf about other people's consensual kinks. People are wired differently and are often weird or strange in one way or the other. The idea that anyone who deviates from what an 'ideal person' deserves to 'punished', even if they aren't actually causing harm to another person, is soooo dangerous.

[ivyial]

hii, how are you? I stumbled upon your page and I started to check it out, upon doing that I came across one of your eagleone posts, and how you view the ship or how you view people who dislike the shop entirely for no reason at all. and to be honest I couldn't agree more. your choice of words and how you describe just makes my heart feel hope again. hope that there's actual human beings that are using a gift called a brain for once.

it honestly drives me crazy to see people literally sending death threats and literal racism to those who ship a ship that isn't quite popular. another account just a few days ago that speaks alot about eagleone and analyses their scenes and dialogues, got literal death threats that would me a grown adult puke from how disgusting to know such human beings exist.

( didn't realize to be that long LMAO )

anyway I just wanted to say that I absolutely love all your eagleone content literally makes my day <3

i- 🥺🥺❤❤ omg thank you so much anon

i've never been one for ship wars. what bothers me the most about the eagleone discourse (and the current cleon discourse on twitter as well) is how likening characters to siblings (eagleone) or saying one views the other as a kid (cleon - insane take but anyway) eventually becomes "these characters are LITERALLY siblings, they are so sibling coded to me that it essentially makes them actual siblings" and creates a breeding ground for harassment and accusations of proshipping.

shipping has always been a matter of personal taste, and it's one of those few things in fandoms where there's no need to debate about conflicting ships. in the end, you can just agree to disagree. i like X for those reasons and you like Y for those. that's it. ships are usually better enjoyed with fellow shippers. it only risks becoming an echochamber when people start to take it so seriously that their group of shippers decides to hate on everyone else, and eventually, to harass them.

which is unfortunately what is happening right now. i'm very aware of the death threats and everything else, and it's sad and infuriating to realise that fandoms will never change. idk how old you are anon, or if you were around on tumblr when it happened, but a few years ago, the voltron fandom was a big thing around here (i apologise in advance to everyone who had to live through that lmfao). klance was arguably the biggest ship in the fandom (keith x lance), so the shippers were actively campaigning for it to become canon. it got to the point where klance shippers sent the show creators cupcakes filled with glass shards to convince them to canonise the ship. I WISH I WAS FUCKING KIDDING

this stuff's not new, bullying fellow fans isn't new unfortunately, and bullying actors or producers isn't either. if i remember correctly, when supernatural s4-5 (i guess) were airing back in the 2000s, dean's love interest jo was removed from the show supposedly because fangirls lost their shit and sent hate mail to producers. but that's all speculation, i can't find a reliable source for that.

i wish people would stop taking everything so seriously and get this nasty over fiction. however, it's unlikely that it will happen, because fandoms are filled with kids who don't know any better, are sometimes fully raised by the internet and then turn into immature adults. it's rare to find spaces in fandoms were you can genuinely have fun and create content without being policed by 12 year olds, but when you can, it makes the fandom experience a lot better.

i don't put much content out there, but i'm glad to see that the few posts i write are appreciated!! i'm working on an eagleone fic rn so it definitely makes me want to keep working on it regularly and create more content 😭

[diamondsplit]

Random thoughts on the whole proship/anti issue that seems to be getting bigger in the RPC.

I wanna start by saying, I don’t think it’s my responsibility to cater to anyone’s wish to roleplay. This is a hobby for me and I choose the partners I want to write with and don’t owe anyone interactions. I know there are people who struggle to find writing partners (for reasons such as their muse is too popular and thus too often played, or they have a particular style some people don’t work well with, or they are just very new, etc etc) and while I feel bad for them, I don’t consider it my job to fix that. I’ve been roleplaying for over 15 years and I know what I am looking for in a partner and it’s pretty specific at this point. But I’ve been there. It sucks and sometimes it’s very frustrating to search for partners. But I feel like usually you end up finding someone eventually. If not in this fandom, maybe in the next, maybe on another site, maybe through someone else.

But with this proship/anti thing going around I feel like it’s become even harder for new roleplayers to find partners. Because now they’re kind of forced to immediately pick a side in this weird preference war, possibly without even understanding what any of it really means. Because I, for one, don’t even bother interacting with people anymore unless I can somehow confirm that they have an unconditional no harassment policy or honestly just don’t give a poop about the whole issue. If there’s a 5% chance someone could be a person who subscribes to the anti agenda, I am outta here. And I know a lot of roleplayers feel the same way, many of which are over 20 and great writers with lots of experience that could be useful to new writers. They could be amazing writing partners, but they won’t be, because they have to expect that they accidentally start talking to someone who thinks sending anon hate and death threats for clout is the way to go. And I, for one, have no time for that. I don’t and have never forced any ships or themes in my writing on anyone and I never will. I respect people’s boundaries and I can agree to disagree. We all have our preferences and dislikes and we need to learn to navigate those and co-exist with people whose preferences and dislikes clash with our own. We don’t need to go to war over it; it’s a waste of time and energy and does nothing but destroy a community that could instead bond over shared interests and a beautiful creative hobby.

It’s pretty sad to see what’s become of the RPC, to be honest. Some of you clearly didn’t see those days, but it didn’t use to be like this. I guess we can only appeal to each roleplayer to think for themselves and be careful of what crowd they attach themselves to because it’s become very pseudo political in here, to the point where your joy for a wonderful hobby might suffer greatly if you don’t shield yourself against it.

Please treat others with the respect you’d like to receive as well. And remember that harassment is an inherently cruel and negative act and as such can never lead to a positive outcome.

[itsclydebitches]

Hey there! Admittedly I'm a little bit nervous since this is my first ask, but I'll try to not be too rambly.

So, recently the main subreddit, r/RWBY, made a ban on active users of the r/RWBYcritics subreddit. As a result there's been discussion around bad-faith criticism in the latter subreddit. What are your takes on bad-faith criticism?

For me personally, I think a bunch of people are misusing the term "bad-faith" and using it as a way to shut down criticism, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it.

Hey there, everyone! We woke up to some drama this morning, huh? And hello to you too, Tortoise! I'm so glad you decided to send in an ask, even if it's following some pretty tumultuous events...

Right, I'd like to start with a story. The story of how I personally don't spend time on Reddit, but I have plenty of friends who will occasionally cross-post something for me to see. Yesterday (or the day before? Idk time is meaningless) a friend told me about a post — which, significantly, I'm now having trouble finding — that covers RWBY's inconsistent writing and the fandom's tendency to try and explain away those missteps. They'd thought I'd be interested because I'd just had a conversation here on tumblr where I made that exact point to someone who, also significantly, vehemently disagreed with me, but in a very civil fashion. Given everything going on, I feel like this side point needs emphasis: we debated, we did so in a sometimes heated, but nevertheless respectful manner, it was clear neither of us was going to sway the other, and the conversation ended. The two "sides" of the community interacted without Armageddon coming about.

But back to the purpose of this tale. I went to take a look at this point and found that it no longer exists. There's just some vague message about it not obeying the subreddit's rules. "What happened?" I asked. "Why'd they take the post down?" "People were getting too heated in the comments," my friend replies. So, given that the comments were still visible, I proceeded to read through them, expecting personal attacks, slurs, harassment, etc. Any number of things that would justify deleting the post itself to put an end to such behavior. Instead, I found a thread of people having a conversation. Was the conversation heated at times? Sure. Did one or two individual posters edge into the realm of petulant, "No. You're wrong and stupid" responses? Yes. Was any of this remotely what I was expecting given the post's removal? NOPE.

"This isn't allowed?" I said. "Well then what is? People were being civil! Or at least as civil as hundreds of strangers ever get when discussing a series they're passionate about online."

Then, this morning, I hear that the entire critic subreddit has been banned.

So to answer your question, Tortoise, I don't actually think that "good faith" criticism exists. Meaning, it's not just that fans are misusing the term "bad faith criticism," but rather that there is no unified, agreed up method of writing criticism that will meet their standards. It's not possible and we know it's not possible because fans have been trying to meet those elusive standards for years:

A fan posts nothing but praise for RWBY until changes make them criticize the show as it is now. Their entire body of work is dismissed as the product of a "hater," despite the overwhelming gap between positive and negative reviews.

A fan posts a review that's a pretty balanced mix between praise and criticism. They're dismissed because it's still too much criticism.

A fan posts a review that's 99% praise with 1% criticism. That's still too much, with fans focusing on the single problem they had with the work and using it as an excuse to dismiss the entire review out of hand.

(As an aside, the argument that critics are "obsessed" with only saying negative things and that the only problem here is that they're "too" negative ignores the argument that... RWBY has a lot of flaws nowadays. Few are willing to acknowledge the possibility that it's not fans insisting on making things up to be mad about/ignoring the good parts of the show, it's the that show is, as of now, legitimately more of a mess than it is a praise-worthy product. If I'd been writing recaps in the Volumes 1-4 days, my work would have been skewed far more towards the positive. The critics' stance is that RWBY has gotten worse, which yes, results a higher volume of critical posts. To say nothing of how criticism takes far longer to explain, likewise resulting in posts focused primarily on that side of the divide. I really enjoyed the image of a crying Jaune reflected in his sword. I did not enjoy that moment's context. Saying that you liked an animation choice is a one sentence thing. Explaining the complexities of Jaune securing emotional moments, the problems with Penny's second death, the hurt many fans experienced watching an assisted suicide, etc. takes a whooole lot longer. Hence, you get massive, multiple posts about these nuanced topics and fewer, smaller posts about the details that are working well.)

A fan talks about a topic that has been metaphorically banned by the fandom as a whole. They have something good to say about Ironwood. They dislike something about Blake/Yang. They enjoyed Adam as a character. They have a problem with Ruby's leadership, etc. There's a whole list of topics nowadays that will result in an automatic dismissal, regardless of the point the fan is trying to make or how well they make it.

A fan talks about the minority representation of RWBY — its black characters, its queer characters, its disabled characters, etc. — and as a result has something to say about the biases and missteps of those writing these characters. This is considered an attack on the writers and, therefore, automatically bad.

A fan talks about how they enjoyed RWBY as it was years ago and is having trouble reconciling the dark, complicated story with the simple, hopeful one we started out with. This is seen as an attack on Monty's vision and an unwillingness to accept that "everything is planned."

A fan does as asked and ensures that their post is meeting all the requirements of "real" criticism. They have an argument to make. They have a point. They provide evidence. They recommend a solution. They keep their tone respectful. They don't attack the creators. They provide disclaimers in every single paragraph about how they do not hate RWBY. It doesn't matter. They're considered too negative.

I have, quite literally, seen every one of the above examples on multiple occasions. I have had many of the above accusations leveled at my own work. When fans say that they're fine with criticism provided it's not "bad faith" criticism, they don't actually have a specific post-type in mind; a checklist of behaviors another fan can emulate and, provided they do that, no hate will come their way. Or, if an individual fan does actually go, "Yeah. That criticism I'm fine with" that response is in no way universal. One person's "They make a good, civil point" is another person's, "Omg stop bashing the show!" Because "bashing" has come to mean everything from curse-laden insults towards everything RWBY has ever done, to posts that just happen to say something other fans don't agree with.

It's a rigged game. There is no way to post criticism about RWBY in an agreed-upon, appropriate manner. This recent ban is proof of that. I think it's incredibly telling that almost immediately after I was going, "Wow. A pretty calm debate about the flaws of RWBY in the main sub. That's great to see," all posters from the criticism subreddit were banned. The main sub literally just had the sort of criticism that they claim to accept — people respectfully posting analysis-based arguments resulting in calm debate — and yet they implemented the ban anyway. I'm not going to pretend that I've never gotten too heated on my own posts, never made snarky comments when I'm frustrated, never used exaggerated reaction GIFs that can come across as insulting... but I'd say on the whole my RWBY work is precisely the sort of "good faith" criticism that other fans are supposedly looking for. I never make an argument I don't think I can back up with evidence. I try to allow for the nuance and differing opinions of complicated topics. I try — even if I don't always succeed — to write in a clear, respectful manner. Yet none of that work has stopped people from telling me I'm a "bitter... raging asshole," a "deranged, delusional psychopath," telling me to set myself on fire, threatening to smash my head in, or just messages to straight up kill myself. If someone like me who legitimately works hard to create fair, defendable criticism and who only ever posts on a personal blog that people can easily block, who never engages in debate until someone else starts it first, never seeks out other fans I disagree with to harass them about what they like... if someone like me is still a "bad faith" critic who "deserves" that kind of hate mail... then what kind of criticism do people want?

Nothing. That's the answer. No criticism whatsoever, of any kind, no matter if it's delivered respectfully, is making a good point, whatever. That's why "RWDE" was created. That's why the critic subreddit was created. The community at large has demanded a complete separation between Praise and Anything That's Not 100% Praise, which has now resulted in this ban. Any other explanations we see are excuses, which becomes glaringly obvious when you look at the mods' supposed reasons for implementing the ban:

"Constant arguments with r/RWBY users" - As opposed to the arguments surrounding things like shipping that never, ever happen?

"Vote manipulation and comment brigades" - The subreddit with 3,000 participants, with around 200 on at a time, is manipulating the votes of a subreddit with 155,000 participants, with over 1,000 on at a time? Those numbers just do not check out. If a positive post is downvoted, or a critical post upvoted, maybe that's because large swaths of the community actually agree/disagree with that assessment, not because the incredibly smaller group is somehow manipulating things.

"Attacking and harassing those they disagree with" — Again, as opposed to those non-critics that never, ever harass people? This is an individual problem, not a community problem. Both critics and non-critics have their sub-groups acting in ways they shouldn't. If anything, the main sub will have more individuals harassing other fans, simply by virtue of being so much larger. As the above examples attest, it's not other critics who have told me to light myself on fire and, just to be clear, the asks I've responded to are a miniscule number compared to the amount I've received. I delete the lion's share for my own sanity and to save my followers from reading the really graphic threats.

"Months-long NSFL spam brigades" — I am, admittedly, not sure what this is referring to. Spamming of NSFW content? If so, that's also an individual problem.

"Homophobic, transphobic, and racist attacks towards our users" — See the above points. Again. If someone is being homophobic, transphobic, or racist, then yes please, ban them. Don't ban an entire community for the actions of a few. It's like walking into a store and banning a customer for causing a scene... but then also banning everyone else who happened to be shopping at the same time. It's guilt by association.

The silver lining to all this? The community as a whole isn't pleased. At least according to the main subreddit comments and a few individual voices like MurderofBirds. Despite the increase (from my perspective anyway) of critical voices post-Volume 8, criticism of RWBY is still very much seen as taboo. As this ban showcases. But it's really reassuring to see so many fans, critics and non-critics alike, going, "This was a mistake." A community is meant to include all aspects of engagement: praise, criticism, and the gray area between. If anything, fans like the mods of the main subreddit should be creating a separate subreddit that is specifically for praise. In the same way that there should have been a tag for RWBY praise, rather than trying to eliminate any and all criticism from the main "RWBY" tag. The majority of fans, even those who claim to hate critics and all they (presumably) stand for, recognize that a blanket ban of all criticism is not the way to go, especially when "criticism" has come to have such a staggeringly broad definition. If you want your RWBY experience to be nothing but sunshine and roses (ha), then cultivate your own internet experience to reflect that. Create your own pockets with rules about how this is the space for praise and if you're not up for praising RWBY right now, don't interact with us in this particular space. Don't try to make the entire community — the main tools used to discuss the show online — conform to your preferences. As established, there is no "good" criticism that everyone in the fandom will accept, which just leaves a fandom with no criticism at all. I'm glad to see I'm far from the only one who, when presented with that extreme, is going, "Nope. No thank you."

[dragynkeep]

Hey there, I just wanted to get this off my chest a lot so major apologies here if I vented a little too hard here. The reason why I stopped watching RWBY was for a lot of things one was the goddamn horrendous writing and how it seriously just fucking began to suck especially around Vol 5 .Also the fact that MKEK, Eddy Sleddy, and Ms. Garden of Shite seriously do not want to put in ACTUAL EFFORT in the writing or accept ACTUAL CRITICISM from fans who watched from Seasons one through eight but nope they take criticism from FNDUM pressure. Another thing is how they dont want to put in effort with their lore. Like "Making a timeline is only going to create more plotholes" MY FUCKING ASS. Having or Making a timeline is important to the STORY. And how they just dont want to put in lore but they do it last second like: "Oh Atlas is not powered by Gravity Dust its Powered by the Relic of Creation." Like fucking WHAT?! Then how did they find the Relic of Creation?! It just makes ZERO FUCKING SENSE. Or how unprofessional Arryn "I only do RWBY now for Bumbleby" Zech has become with this, and I'd Rather have a POC voice acting Blake. Someone who knows Blakes character from the start and sticks with how she acted from Vol 1-3 instead of an abusive, toxic asshat who stokes the fires of a toxic ship and its fans no less! And the FNDUM has gotten even more toxic and idiotic they have become. I will admit there are some good eggs out there that do separate fiction from reality. What pisses me off is just how if you dislike Bumbleshit you get labled as a homophobe without question whether if your straight or part of the LGBT+ community!! Like fucking judge, jury, and executioner the FNDUM is not! Even worse is how if you disagree with someone you get blocked for it or laughed at, or worse of all you get called a SLUR for it! And not to mention the fact that they put RWBY on some GRAND PEDASTEL like its the greatest thing to exist when its NOT. And not to mention how they treat people who do ENTIRE RE-WRITES like actual garbage, people who saw the mistakes and try to fix them but instead people who do so get called out and harassed for it! Or how people who RWBY OC's who do their own canon as well while flipping off RT's Canon gets harassed as well. At this point I just want RWBY to get cancelled and be buried in some vault where I never have to see it again...Once more I do apologize about this and it felt really good getting this off of my chest, and once more I do apologize.

absolutely no need to apologise, i definitely get this frustration & how the way the fndm seems to not only coddle mkek but excuse every inch of poor writing & outright bigotry in rwby can really begin to grate on you. especially if you’re part of the marginalized people they malign & then essentially just get gaslit into being at fault for getting mad about bigotry against you being furthered by a bunch of mostly white cishet people.

[otterskin]

I didn't like the LOKI show, no matter how hard I try, and it's messing with me.

My mother died at the end of December. A lot of other bad things happened as well, like the severe brain injury of my father.

I didn't cry. There was so much to do. I did it. And even then, when there was nothing left to do, I didn't cry.

I found distractions.

Today I went to see the Green Knight after a tough week at a new job that had me leave my father in another province even though he still needs help. I was trying to get back to the life I'd dropped.

I loved the Green Knight. The Arthurian Legends are as dear to me as Norse Mythology, and my copy of them had the Green Knight on the cover. The film was truly excellent, evoking the feel of the story whole still doing something unique and very A24. I cried at one point, like I did when watching the first THOR, because of how much it meant to see something I'd loved since the very first years of my existence finally make it to the big screen and be...right. It's own thing, it's own artistic product, but right.

Then I opened a tab in a browser and saw I had some messages on a website I comment on. It was just some minor criticism of the LOKI show I'd posted beneath an article and how it handled certain things.

I was downvoted. Berated. Hated. Lumped in the ad hominem twitter users who attacked the director and writer (I'd never, ever!) Told I was biphobic because I wanted to see more of a queer lens (I even addressed how difficult it is for bi people in queer cinema and society in general in my criticisms of the romance, but even that wasn't good enough - just disliking it was 'bad'.) I was told I just wanted my 'fanfic' made (I never made any laundrylist of plot points I demanded). I was accused of being a begrudged shipper (ha! If anything I'm an anti-shipper). I was told that I should love the show, it was awesome, and I was bad for not thinking so.

And I started to cry.

I don't cry. Only at movies. Not at real life. I didn't cry at my grandparents's funerals, I didn't cry when I was left with the body of my mother in the hospital room and my brother cried on my shoulder. I didn't cry when working through my dad's severe new disabilities as I realized how much he had lost. I didn't cry while realizing how messy my parents' finances were. I didn't cry when my mother's friends called me in the middle of the night and cried into the phone. I didn't cry when saying goodbye to my dog and going back to a rundown apartment with a terrible smell so I could go to work in a dark room for hours at a time.

But now I'm crying and writing this.

I've realized why. During everything, I looked forward to the LOKI show. The first THOR is deeply nostalgic to me and I watched it often in my first year of Uni when I was away from home. It tied in thematically to what I was going for. Thor 2 came out before I went on exchange, and while I disliked it overall, talking about it was a welcome distraction from my anxieties. Thor 3 was nerve-wracking, but it also came out during my first major job which I was struggling with, and I saw it so many times in theatres...it was such a huge comfort.

Looking forward to LOKI wasn't just a distraction. It was like a promise. A promise that I'd make it till then and see it and maybe it'd give me some comfort.

That's on me. That's a personal thing. It's an unreasonable expectation.

But I needed it, all the same.

Then it came out.

I tried. I really tried to like it, to forgive it, but the problems are things I've criticized for too long in so many other things. I always try to be respectful about, I never go ad hominem and attack the creators, only critique their work and I always mentioned what I liked but...

I didn't like it.

I have no urge to rewatch it.

And the Green Knight...the Green Knight was everything I wanted and needed it to be. It didn't let me down, though I've been anticipating it about as long as the LOKI show. They're very different, obviously, but in my heart they share the same compartment.

And after a very trying day...I realized how badly I needed to rewatch a Loki show I liked. But I can't even enjoy THOR or Thor:Ragnarok anymore. It's like everything I did like has been poisoned.

This thing that got me through immense pain is causing me pain. I don't want to be toxic. I'm sure it's in me. I try so hard not to wallow in disappointment, but to not even be allowed to talk about my problems without being lumped in with abusive online monsters...

I can't do it. I just can't.

This is supposed to be an escape, not another trial.

I needed the LOKI show to be good, so I could come out of the dark into the light, or at least walk through the night with a lantern ahead of me. And instead it was just more darkness, and it's not even entirely its own fault. It's the online discourse. It's the uncalled for harassment of Herron and Waldron. It's the taunting jabs at people who didn't have a good time as if we're all jerks. It's having people roll their eyes when you point out things that made you uncomfortable in the story, it's feeling slightly gaslit when you find something gross that the story intended to be gross and then being told it's not gross, actually.

I'm sorry. I don't want to cause pain. I just...

I needed it to be good. And unlike Thor 3, which delivered me respite in a dark time...it let me down. Worse, it's hurt me.

I said I don't cry, only at the movies. Something about them lets me cry in a way nothing else does. I can't cry at a funeral, but I can cry in a movie theatre at the drop of a hat. It's a release valve, a way for me to process things.

I think I was waiting for LOKI to give me permission to cry. To give me something that could release this pain in me. And instead, it just gave me more.

I never should have given it that power. I didn't want to. But I had to, to get through this.

I'm putting away the few THOR pieces of tat I have. I feel foolish. I always knew it was a capitalist piece of art, chucked from creator to creator with no creative shepherd, which in itself was stressful.

The fandom is no sanctuary for me either, since I'm primarily interested in the family dynamics and I'm sick of 'Odin is an ABUSIVE MONSTER' stories or even unrelated fics and posts just dropping in hate for him that's not at all canon but seems to be very popular to the point where people think it is. Especially since I often read these stories when I need to think of home and my father. Or, most pleasantly of all, when I get called an abuser or abuser-enabler because I say I like Odin as a character. I also can't really bear to deal with anything to do with Sylvie, whom I had high hopes for as someone who wants more female tricksters, but instead I got this...this Mary Sue that's very hard to criticize without being yelled at. I swear I'm coming at her writing as a feminist and I don't hate anyone, I don't, I just...sigh. She's just personally frustrating to me and not being able to discuss it without being called names sucks.

Not to mention I'm asexual, and I always struggle with romance in media being pushed as the 'ultimate relationship more important than any other'. Part of the reason I liked THOR so much was that romance was not the main feature of THOR and definitely not THOR 3 (while my disliked Dark World was all about it, and so is LOKI). And when I criticize the romance, I get called a prude (guilty, I guess), a troll, or, my favourite, just 'a hater'.

I don't want to hate. Who wants that poison in their veins? I'm here because the Thor series HELPED me because I LOVED it. And now I look at the things I used to love and I...don't, anymore.

So much is asked of me right now. I can't willingly invite this painful thing to sit on my chest as well, especially since the world is already shoving it into my face without my doing anything, in ads, in news, in everything.

I suppose that's why I've leaned even more into Odin lately. He was untouched by the LOKI series (though not the Simpson special, which worries me). He's a trickster, he's queer, he's nuanced, he's 'misunderstood' (that old cliche, but he's misunderstood and misrepresented by the people always yelling about how this or that character is misunderstood, which amuses me, except when it gets to me), and he's in many ways free to make my own.

I still have some stuff I'm going to publish that's practically finished. Finnesang has a lot more written for it but needs some major sit-down time for re-writes and edits. Lokabrenna is practically done, just needs tweaks and Beta. I'll be here a little longer.

But I think I'm going to have to step back for now and put my passions into other things.

I will be back. After all, after Thor 2 came Thor 3. Maybe Love and Thunder will right the ship and Thor can still be awesome, and maybe eventually a creative I love will come to work on the franchise. Really, that's the key for me - I loved Branagh before THOR, and loved Waititi before Thor, and disliked Waldron's work (though I gave him every benefit of the doubt and hoped and prayed to be wrong - sadly, it was what I expected.)

But...if LOKI season 2 is more of this, more romantic tropes I hate and Loki being an afterthought in his own show and his family being devalued for new characters...I can't do it. I can't watch something I used to love just throw that all away for something I dislike.

My tears are finally drying. I wrote a lot of this while the screen was blurry, so I hope there's no grammar or typo too embarrasing. I'm not sure I have the strength to re-read it. Sorry for the rant. It helped me feel better.

Thank you all. I hope I feel differently someday.

[evitachristine]

Anti-Hophie Rant

So I finally finished reading One True King, and this is what I have to say. It’s long. 

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Before I get into this, just a small warning: If Hophie is your OTP and embodiment of perfection, this text is not for you. I will not argue with anyone, alright?

To start this off, in my opinion OTK is the weakest of the series. It just feels like a connection between the last book and the fact that Tedros has to become the King. Some might argue that the second book was the worst, well, I disagree. It’s not just because Hophie happens here, but I kind of believe that when the internet spoiled to me that my hated ship was going to happen (because I had to wait until the book comes out in my country), I was expecting more from it. That I would actually be convinced it’s meant to be, which didn’t happen. Also the execution of some characters (Ahem...Merlin) was just...why. It seemed to me that there were a lot of other fan services in this book, apart from Hort and Sophie getting together, but more about that later. 

 I need to remember this for good, and next time I become a fan of something, I will avoid its fanbase. I do not mean to offend anyone, but a fanbase can really ruin a platform, especially when the platform is still developping and the fanbase is influencing it, which I believe did happen a lot with SGE. I will not deny that a fandom can improve such thing - that is definitely true as well - but sometimes the line between improving and ruining is slim, and if it doesn’t ruin the platform, then it might ruin a couple of fans’ experience of it. 

Now to the point of me hating Hophie.

As I mentioned in my previous post, and above. When I discovered the fandom and found out that people are shipping Hort and Sophie, I asked myself “But why? Sophie doesn’t like Hort.” and I kind of thought this was a joke or a meme ship. I always ship characters where both sides have at least a visible bit of attraction towards each other. Whether its friends to lovers or enemies to lovers. Hophie, until the last book and half, was not the case. It was a typical example of unrequited crush, Sophie once only used Hort to make Tedros jealous. But if my mind isn’t tricking me, she was always disgusted by him and even during their first encounter, he attempted to harass her! And the fact that “they were still kids back then” is not an excuse to me. 

Allow me to make a slight turn from SGE. When I was about 8-10, my mum took me to see an opera called Turandot. I will not bother you with opera, but long story short: A princess is very beautiful and a lot of men want to marry her. So she is giving everyone three questions, if they answer incorrectly, they are executed. Everyone are getting executed until a prince in disguise arrives and is in love with her, answers all questions correctly. Princess doesn’t want to marry him tho, so he asks her to guess his name and if she succeeds, he will gladly die. The princess doesn’t feel love at all and doesn’t want to fall in love. She believes she is a saint. Then in a dramatic duet the prince kisses her and ALL OF SUDDEN the princess falls in love with him. 

Whew. Sorry, I tried to make this as short as possible. I remember asking my mum after this: “Why is the girl always forced to love the boy?” Little me didn’t like this idea of a “magical kiss” already, lol. Mum’s answer was “Because it was written by a boy.”, but that’s not even my point here. Do you see the pattern? Girl keeps refusing guy but in the end he still gets her. THIS RIGHT HERE is the main reason why I hate Hophie. It reinforces the stereotype that if a guy is persistent enough, he will get the girl even if she said no a million times. 

Another note I’d like to say about this, and I’m going to receive hate for this opinion. I started book 1 when I was 16. Now I’m in my early twenties and I get that most SGE readers are still teenagers. The age of crushes, clumsy love experiments, etc. OK now I sound like a grandma. But I think this is where Hophie stems from. Everyone are seeing themselves in Hort. Your crush doesn’t like you back, his crush doesn’t like him back. Something like Éponine in Les Misérables. If Marius and Sophie both fall in love with the person who likes them, it’s like the crush of the fan does. Can we call this the Hort-Éponine complex? 

Aside from that, I believe that people who already experienced both sides of unrequited love (like yours truly grandma, right here), meaning Sophie’s side of it, are less likely to support such ships. 

I will now dive into the OTK “resolution” of this pairing. First let me just say, this book made me, if not hate, then at least strongly dislike Hort’s character. The first half of the book and even a some time after before he finally gets with Sophie, his character is disgusting to me. He is so obsessed with her, even while he’s still dating Nicola. As in my previous post, it’s like a huge part of his character is only “I LOVE SOPHIE”. While he’s still with Nicola, he never fails to mention “his FRIEND Sophie”. I will now paraphrase because I read a translation, not the original, but even when Hort’s singing to the guards to distract them so Agatha and Tedros can sneak into the Library, he sings something along the lines “Girlfriend Nikki and friend Soph”. I’m not sure if this was meant to convince the reader that Sophie ending up with Hort is a good idea, but with me, it did the exact opposite. 

In general, their “romance” feels extremely rushed to me. Compared to Sophie’s previous love interests, regardless of who they were as people, these two have zero chemistry. It seems as if Sophie decided to settle because there was no other guy for her. And the description of her suddenly being in love with him, as mentioned above, is another of those “magical kiss” stories. It is hardly believable and kind of... shallow. 

There even were several moments when Rafal was mentioned. In COT, when the protagonists wanted to flee Camelot but Sophie decided to stay, she saw Hort flying to her and she mistook him for Rafal. Goodness. Even in OTK there were a few moments when it seemed that Sophie still has issues from that relationship. Very few, but they were there. 

Therefore I refuse to believe that the reason for this was anything other than to satisfy the majority of the fandom. In addition, the entire book feels like one huge “fan service”, as other ships are “sailing” as well. We have Hestadil and Bogden/Willam, but these two are at least believable. Hestadil started, even tho inconspicously, two books ago, and it resolved naturally. And beforehand they were close friends, so there’s that. As for the boys, they were side characters, so we can only think that all resolved while they were off the scene. 

To sum it up, I thought of three different endings I’d prefer for Sophie. 

On the first place, this was mentioned several times by other people, is that she should have stayed on her own. That happened in TLEA, but this time, really. I hated that OTK made it seem that she really needs a partner. Yes, love, but heck... is romantic love the only thing that is out there? How about friendship? Content with oneself? Pursuing hobbies that you love? Freedom? Come on. Awesome characters that end up single AND ARE HAPPY should have more representation. And I think Sophie would have been amazing like that. 

On the second place I have two things. First, Sophie with a girl. Only I’m not sure who. Maybe Nicola, or Betty if she survived. Or maybe, people might hate me for this, but... Dot? I don’t ship it but I think it could have been cute. Maybe they would start off getting closer as friends and the rest would be left up to the reader’s imagination.

The other preferable ending I have at second place was originally on the third place, but some weird nostalgia overcame me when reading OTK and I had to move it up. People will hate me. But if Sophie should end up with a guy, it should have been Rhian. Yes, I know what you are thinking right now. But think about it. That guy really believed he was Arthur’s son. Imagine if he found out the truth. Something tells me it would be really hard for him at first, but in the end, if he found out that Japeth really only wants Aric, he could’ve joined the protagonists. In my opinion Sophie had the best dynamic with him, before it all spiralled downwards with snakes etc. Maybe he could pretend to help his twin but in the end... I believe I read something like this somewhere on Tumblr as well. Also this kind of feels as if it could have been Soman’s original plan before he turned to pleasing the fans. Or maybe I’m just fantasising too much.  Regardless of how much you’re cursing me right now, I believe Rhian deserved better and shouldn’t have died. After all, he was the better twin. 

As for Hort, well, before OTK I didn’t really care for his character, I didn’t dislike him but he wasn’t my favourite. I simply wished him well hoping he’ll get over Sophie so he can be happy, either with Nicola/someone else, or on his own. After the last book made me resent him, I’m not sure. He could have died, but I know that is cruel. 

He could have been slowly realising that he doesn’t need Sophie, his love would fade away, maybe Nicola could break up with him in the process, then they would get back together, at a natural pace, realisation, etc. Or they wouldn’t, or they wouldn’t break up at all, just separate on different missions, and then reunite and realise they were truly meant to be together all along. 

Whew, if you made it here, congratulations. If you read this as a Hophie shipper, I’m not taking away your opinion. I just needed to let this out. Hope we can respect each other. 

...But I still kinda wish we could get another version of OTK where Hophie doesn’t happen. 

[daydream-ideas]

The Shadows

I’m not sure if this an actual real life concept, as yet again, I have not done any research, but I saw it in a few manhwa’s and stole it for my paracosm hahaha. 

The Emperor’s Shadows. 

People who are tasked with following and protecting the emperor in secret, away from the eyes of anyone who might be watching, even the emperor’s own knights and average guards. They’re useful for protection when the emperor has to go somewhere discreetly and the addition of knights would give away too much, plus, they can be sent on errands to gather intel as spies. 

Lyr gathers up all the assassins who previously worked for the king of Misian (though the king said that he ‘owned’ them) who Lyr usurped the throne from and makes them into his Shadows, having them be spies rather than assassins as they previously were, since the skillset is rather similar (having to be stealthy, etc.) but I still just refer to them as assassins anyway.

—

warnings for: torture, conditioning, assassins (wow shocker), war mention, human experimentation, drugs, addiction, slavery, forced labor

Silas  – the first assassin

He was the best of the five, and the one sent to kill Lyr when he first claimed the throne of his home kingdom, Avimier. Lyr defeated him (which honestly was just kind of luck and Lyr’s paranoia since he’d just gone through a coup at the hands of his knights, so he was really on edge, but Silas is super good at fighting) and had him sent to the dungeons, where he pretty much forgot about him for the next couple of years lol. When he sentences Silas to be imprisoned, he tells his guards to “find out who sent him” which, given the history of Avimier’s past monarchs who were typically cruel, the guards interpreted the order as “torture the assassin until he reveals who sent him” which Lyr does not consider at all (he’s new to this and doesn’t yet know how things work) and that’s how Lyr accidentally had a man tortured 😬 

He later releases Silas when he discovers what’s been done to him in the dungeons, but this isn’t until after the war with the Sylnera’ti kingdom which occurs much later in the timeline (it’s the third kingdom he conquers) and the king who sent Silas (the Misian king) is already dead. 

The Misian king (he doesn’t deserve a name) tortured all his assassins so he could condition them to follow him as living weapons and nothing else, and as a result, Silas had shut off any part of himself that could feel emotion as a way to survive, long before he ever even met Lyr. Due to his past conditioning, him hearing Lyr’s name during the vicious torture he endured in the dungeons, it rewired his brain to be absolutely loyal to Lyr as his king, rather than as a target. 

This is something that brings great discomfort to Lyr when he finds out because it’s not like this is something he wanted to have happen, even if it does technically benefit him. It’s also not something I was planning on sharing here? because it is super fucked up and Lyr is still my precious bean even if he did something like this, but yeah, there’s that. 

Silas has long white / silver hair and grey eyes that hold no emotion. He’s the most anti-social para of the whole cosm and prefers to skulk in the library rather than interact with anyone. People also don’t like being around him as even his presence unnerves them — they don’t even know he’s an assassin, it’s just that monotone, expressionless way about him that creeps them out. He likes to nap in odd places that aren’t meant for sleeping. 

—

Casimir – the second assassin

Given a less dramatic backstory than Silas, as the remaining assassins all dispersed from the Misian castle after Lyr usurped the throne, going their separate ways to try and hide out while making a life for themselves — not that it was really much of a life. 

Casimir had it the best out of all the assassins being that he was remarkably average. He was still tortured by the Misian king just as the rest of them were, but didn’t garner any unwanted attention for being the best or worst. 

After leaving the castle, he joined a band of mercenaries and used his skills to complete jobs and earn a little bit of money, and for once feeling a semblance of freedom, though he was still bound by the anger and bitterness of his past. 

He was the easiest to find when Lyr went looking, as he wasn’t really being inconspicuous, though he was not happy to see another royal. Lyr, being a supreme idiot who wanted to gain Casimir’s trust so that the assassin would come back to the castle with him, allowed Casimir to take out his anger on him without fighting back (well, it’s the trust thing and also a bit of Lyr’s guilt complex but we’re not gonna get into that) and so this just, did not go very well with Alex, Lyr’s personal guard. The two still don’t get along. 

Casimir did end up joining Lyr, but is also now filled with guilt about how he treated Lyr because Lyr is nice to him unlike the Misian king, though Casimir would never admit to any of this and just takes to deliberately annoying Lyr to cover up how much he wants to apologize for what happened. (me: smh, why are you like this.) 

He develops a taste for the finer things in life after going back to the castle with Lyr, as Lyr starts giving him a stipend for his work (which the Misian king never did) as well as actually decent meals (which he also never got) and so Casimir is overwhelmed with guilt, kindness, and nice fancy things he has no idea what to do with. 

—

Ghislaine – the third assassin

contrary to Casimir, this one had it the worst out of all the assassins. He was the worst at being an assassin, and the most rebellious during the ‘conditioning’ stage, and generally disliked by the Misian king the most, which lead to a whole variety of unpleasantness. 

He was tortured even more than all the other assassins, which left him with hundreds of tiny, meticulously cut scars all across his hands, arms, face, and chest. The Misian king also decided to try and ‘enhance’ Ghislaine’s abilities by experimenting on him to try and make him a SUPER ASSASSIN which notably, didn’t work out so well. 

Because of the experiments, Ghislaine now survives on this custom-made drug which damages him and keeps him alive in equal measure — he needs to take it or else he’ll die, but it’s also getting him addicted and giving him terrible side-effects that cause him great pain. He takes as much of the serum as he can when he escapes the castle when Lyr usurps the throne, but he still runs out of it some months later and has to break into the castle to try and get more. This is when he meets Lyr, as he’s captured while trying to steal the serum. It’s early winter, just before the big snows but at the point when things are starting to frost, and Lyr can see how withered Ghislaine has become. 

He’s been living on the streets as no one will take him in—whether at an inn or for a job, because no one wants to look at him because of his scars. They’re very apparent and impossible to hide, so they make it hard for him to go anywhere without being chased off, so he ends up on the streets. 

Lyr makes him a deal that he’ll let Ghislaine have the serum and will have his potions man try and engineer something that doesn’t cause as much damage to his body, if Ghislaine will stay and serve him. Ghislaine doesn’t want to serve another royal after what happened to him at the hands of the last one, but he also knows he can’t stay out on the streets during winter, and needs that serum to survive. 

He’s also my favorite of the five ❤

—

Devere – fourth assassin

This one I know the least about since I haven’t really daydreamed with him too much, but he’s a good boi. He leaves the castle and goes to the coast to work on a ship, even though he’s really not suited for it or good at it. He’s constantly harassed, teased, mocked, bullied, and beaten by the other sailors and shipworkers, but he prefers that to everything he went through in the castle. His soul is slowly dying like this, but he pushes away the feeling because he knows it could be so much worse. 

He’s the most reticent of all the assassins when Lyr comes to try and retrieve him, so it takes a lot of negotiation in order to get him to go back to the castle. He doesn’t try to harm Lyr like Casimir did, taking out his anger and bitterness on a figurehead, rather, he just shuts down and tries to ignore them like he’s trying to ignore his own trauma.

—

Zev – fifth assassin

He’s the last acquired assassin due to being the hardest to get to. He’s not even in the empire, but in the kingdom of Inscitus, which is ruled by a king who’s not actively at war with Lyr, but the two still don’t have a good relationship because of reasons.

Zev was sent away to the salt mines of Inscitus by the Misian king, before Lyr usurped the throne, where he was imprisoned and forced to mine as basically a slave for several years. He’s gaunt and thin and sickly when Lyr finds him, and since Emperor!Lyr can’t just go and ask another kingdom for a prisoner without raising suspicions or endangering relations, it’s time for Servant!Lyr to do a prison break with a very willful assassin.

Lyr, Alex, and Silas rescue Zev from the mines and escape the kingdom, having to travel back to the castle on a small wagon through the forest with an angry, sick man who didn’t even make it to death’s doorstep, he passed out on death’s front lawn.

Probs my second favorite of the five right now

 —

[theghostofxmasisavirgin]

Bullying:  seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce (someone perceived as vulnerable).

Teasing: intended to provoke or make fun of someone in a playful way.

Can teasing be considered flirting:

Teasing – when done properly – is a great flirting technique because it adds a new level to your relationship. When you affectionately tease someone, it brings the two of you closer, whilst keeping things fun and humorous

 Can Bullying be considered flirting:

Naomi Green

Answered November 23, 2017

No. It doesn't automatically mean that.

This is one of the reasons I hate the “he bullies you because he likes you” fallacy. This line has been getting a lot of criticism because it teaches girls to accept abuse from boys who like them (or vice versa), and I agree that should be discouraged, but I've always disliked it for other reasons:

It's often blatantly untrue. If I went up to any of my male highschool bullies as a teenager and asked them if they liked me, the bullies would have started crying with laughter and the bullying would have intensified as they used this as more material with which they could have bullied me with, sending mocking kisses and sexually lewd comments my way.

It's irresponsible of an adult to tell a child that another child who is nice likes them unless they know it's true, as it would be setting that child up for embarrassment and rejection should they believe the adult and act on it.

It's even worse if the child believes it about a bully who will use everything that child says or does as a weapon against them.

Iefata Tuiavii, Security Guard at Red Badge Security (2014-present)Answered November 22, 2017Depends. Is the bullying flirtatious? Or is genuinely hurting you physically/emotionally/mentally?In many instances, teasing can come across as bullying which in most cases, is actually a confident guy flirting with you. But if they’re calling you more aggressive names that would hurt most people, then chances are they really don’t like you.

Alison Bourke

, worked at Sheraton Hotels & Resorts (1995-2003)

Answered November 25, 2017

No, no , a THOUSAND times no!!!!!!

As little girls we are fed this “ he's mean to you because he likes you” crap and it NEEDS TO STOP. From their first interaction with the male species girls that are given this incorrect message that its OK to let boys treat us disrespectfully are at a disadvantage. Mean behaviour is mean behaviour, he's not flirting wirh you, he's just being mean. When he calls you fat or pulls your hair to the point where it hurts, he is a disrespectful jerk. A guy who likes you will treat you with respect and courtesy. Dont settle for anything less.

Gareth Greetham

, Support Worker (2019-present)

Answered November 22, 2017

No. It means that they are an asshat that gets off on others suffering. That’s if it’s actual bullying.

If they’re just teasing and taking the piss a bit but all in good fun and not hurting you, or trying to hurt you, then they might like you. Or they might just be a bit of a piss taker

Vaughan Granier

, National Workplace Relations Manager (2018-present)

Answered November 26, 2017

No. Run a mile. It means they are an undateable schmuck..

I copy pasted everything from quora and I also copy pasted the names of the people so I don’t think it’s wrong but if it is please inform me.

Why am I defining Bullying and Teasing? well it’s because I am tired of DramIone fans saying that DRACO WAS JUST FLIRTING WITH hERMIONE!!!!!!!!! nO HE WASN’T HE wAs STRAIGHT Up bUlyINg HER. AND THEN THEY saY that Ron BlliED HER. NO HE dIDN’T. Ron teased Hermione yeah he was an asshole from time to times but that doesnt mean he was a bully. I don’t give two flying fuc*s if you Ship Dramione it’s up to you. You WANT TO SHIP A guy with a girl who he called names, wanted to get sexualy harassed, killed sure its your business. but don’t you dare Call Ron a  Bully just so you guys can Prove that you little mommy and daddy’s little rich boy was just flirting with Hermione when he was straight up bullying her.

I don’t have a clue if my grammars are correct or not cause well I’m pissed and when I’m pissed my grammar gets even worse.

[fanexus-dot-net]

The Philosophy of Fanexus

As Fanexus comes together, we want to provide you with an outline of the philosophy that underlies the platform. The features and TOS that we are currently working on all aim to align with the following principles. 

A Social Media Platform for Fandoms and Creators

Fanexus is a social media platform and wiki that aims to meet the needs of both fandoms and original creators. We were inspired to create Fanexus after following online fandom and creative communities to various platforms over the years, only to find that most of these sites failed to meet our needs as fans and as creators of both fanworks and original content. While using these platforms, we started to come up with ideas for features that would enhance our experiences. Eventually, we realised we had the skills and the means to take these ideas and use them to create a social media platform that could meet these needs.  

Organised and Accessible Fan and Indie Content

One of our core principles is that fanworks and indie content have just as much value as official and mainstream material. The emotions evoked by these works can be just as profound, the ideas they explore can be just as engrossing, and the overall importance they have to a person can be just as significant. As this content often doesn’t aim or need to have the same broad appeal as official and mainstream works, it can venture into places that mainstream media won’t tread, thus having the potential to explore more daring ideas, and elicit more powerful emotions in some people.

Despite fan and indie works generating as much personal value as official and mainstream material, they lack the same degree of organisation, accessibility, and permanency. If someone is looking to track down a piece of mainstream media or find information about it, they will generally find a record of its existence, a way to access the media itself, and information that helps put it in context with any related pieces of media. By contrast, if someone is seeking out a piece of fan or indie work they once enjoyed, it’s common to find that it’s been deleted, or has simply been buried under so much subsequent content that it’s impossible to find again.  

Another common experience is discovering a piece of fan or indie content that is part of a larger set of works, but lacking information explaining the context of the content with respect to the larger collection. Picture finding an image of an original character from a story crafted by multiple roleplayers and wanting to learn more about the character and story. Different parts of the story and information about its characters and lore may have been provided by each of the different roleplayers on their own blogs, across a mixture of platforms, and may have each used slightly different tagging conventions. Some posts explaining vital things may have been mistagged or deleted. The lack of centralised organisation that can give people an easy starting point and order in which to consume some fan and indie content presents a significant barrier of entry for people who might tremendously enjoy certain works.  

A similar experience can occur when a newcomer enters an old fandom that has developed a vast collection of fanon characterisation, worldbuilding, and terminology. Many of these conventions were likely established years ago on platforms that may not exist anymore. The newcomer may feel completely lost when encountering this fanon material, and unless there’s an up to date and easy to locate fanon wiki providing explanations for all of these concepts and terms, or a seasoned fan is willing to provide a full explanation, it can take a significant investment of time for them to figure out what all of it means. As a result, entering such an established fandom can be more confusing and inaccessible than it needs to be.

Fanexus endeavours to give fan and indie content a level of organisation, accessibility, and permanency that elevates it to a level closer to that of mainstream content. One of the means by which we seek to do this is by including wiki functionality. Creators will be able to make wiki pages for things such as their OCs, AUs and roleplays, with summaries containing key points, and guides linking to the relevant content, while explaining the order in which it should be consumed. Fandoms can also work together to create wiki pages explaining fanon concepts and terminology, and the number of different ways they are interpreted by the fandoms. As Fanexus grows, we seek to find ways to make fanworks and indie content increasingly organised and accessible.

Promote Creative Diversity and Enable Tailored Experiences

Fanexus cherishes variety – the more differing fandoms, interests, creative activities, interpretations, preferences, and styles that we can cater to, the better. We stand in opposition of homogenisation in fandom, especially where only particular interpretations and preferences are favoured, while whatever doesn’t comply with these dominant readings and tastes gets pushed to the margins or is attacked for daring to stray. We don’t want any fan to feel they have to alter their headcanons or style to better conform to whatever is preferred by the majority or vocal segments of their fandom. If someone doesn’t enjoy the ideas and creative styles that are predominant in their fandom, we want them to be able to avoid this content, and instead find material that does appeal to them.  

We promote the idea of fandom as an infinite multiverse of possibilities, where each interpretation is equally legitimate, and no reading invalidates any other, because in an endless multitude of fictional realities, all ideas and desires can co-exist. We hold that even canon doesn’t have more legitimacy than the vast array of fan reinterpretations and reimaginings it inspires. We think that it’s important to financially support canon content as it helps the generation of more of what we all love, but we believe that fanworks are just as real and just as enjoyable. By extension, we hold that fanworks that stray far from and wildly contradict the canon that inspired them are no less important than fanworks that fit in seamlessly with that canon. It’s helpful to have a fandom in agreement over what’s explicitly canon so that fanworks can be labelled as either canon-compliant or canon-deviant, to let content consumers know what they’re in for – canon is a point of reference for fandom. However, labelling something as canon-deviant isn’t an admission of inferiority, it’s simply another way of contributing to the rich variety of the fandom experience.

In order to help promote this variety we desire, we endeavour to facilitate the creation of subcultures within broader fandom cultures, so that people who don’t vibe with the predominant interpretations and preferences in a fandom can form communities with like-minded fans. We provide fine-tuned filter features to help people avoid content they dislike without missing out on what they do want to see. The tagging system enables the creation of tags for very specific concepts that are connected to tags for related concepts; for example, a character from a franchise with many continuities can have a main tag for that character, but also have subordinate character tags for each continuity they appear in. A tag can also be created for a specific fanon characterisation of that character which ignores certain canon developments. Through this, fans who only enjoy certain versions or interpretations of a character, even if those versions are fanon, can choose to follow tags for only those versions that appeal to them. The relationships between the tags also mean that people who enjoy certain things can investigate the related tags for those concepts, and find new things that interest them.

We hope to foster diversity in creativity by promoting an atmosphere that celebrates variety; by allowing people to pursue their niche interests without getting in each other’s way, and by creating a map of concepts that makes it easy to navigate a vast range of branching ideas. We want to be home to fanworks ranging from those that perfectly replicate the themes, characterisation, and tone of canon, to those that go completely wild by throwing in every indulgent and out-there idea, thus creating something entirely unique and far removed from the canon that inspired it. We want people to analyse canon through a vast range of different lenses, arriving at all sorts of wildly conflicting but fascinating theories and interpretations. We want for fanworks to inspire fanworks of their own and to be the basis of analysis themselves. We want to be home to a dizzying collection of original works. We want people to use Fanexus to build their own little universes that reflect their own set of interests and ideas, and then be able to find like-minded people to share them with.  

Combat Toxicity and Promote Respectful Discussion  

People deserve respect, compassion, and the freedom to pursue whatever makes them happy, as long as they’re not harming others in this pursuit. No one should ever be seriously threatened or dehumanised – especially when it comes to traits outside their control such as race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc., or over interests and lifestyle choices that aren’t causing harm to others, such as taste in fiction and ships. Over the last few years, toxicity in fandom has risen to truly alarming levels. Countless fans have been degraded, threatened with violence, and doxxed over things as benign as the characters, ships, and tropes they enjoy in fiction. This is completely unacceptable to us.  

We stand firmly in opposition to this bullying, and we will strive to make Fanexus a place where fans and creatives are free to express themselves and enjoy their passions, without fear of becoming a target of harassers. By giving people the ability to form private communities where they can carve out their own spaces with like-minded fans, and by providing more fine-tuned privacy and filtration features to make it easier for users to avoid content they don’t want to see, we hope this will limit the germination of toxicity. However, we want Fanexus’s commitment to combating fandom bullying to extend beyond simply providing better privacy and filtration features; an anti-bullying stance will be written into the Terms of Use and will be actively promoted by the administrators and staff. Anyone seeking to bring the cruelty and toxicity that festers on other platforms to Fanexus will not be tolerated.

Our stance on bullying does not mean that we are opposed to criticism of behaviour, ideas and works, as long as the discourse is respectful. We ask people to understand that there is a line between critical discussion of a person’s behaviours, ideas, and works, and personally attacking someone because of beliefs they may hold or something they have created. A user expressing a view that constitutes hate speech or harassment should be reported, and can subsequently be dealt with by our moderators. If someone publicly expresses a view you feel to be disagreeable, you are certainly free to engage in debate with them if you can do so in a constructive way. If you don’t feel that you are able to criticise their behaviours without making personal attacks, we ask you to block them instead of generating unnecessary conflict.

We believe that a loss of nuance and the rise of absolutist thinking bears much responsibility for the surge of toxicity in fandom, and we want to combat it by promoting critical thinking. We understand that many people use fandom as a form of escapism where they can switch off their brains, and we welcome fans and creators who come for indulgence without any deep thought behind it. However, we also value users who contribute thoughtful and rational analysis and discussion, and we seek to encourage and promote such engagement for those who are interested.  

Harm Reduction Without Censorship

Fanexus should be an environment that is both enjoyable and safe, but we also want it to be a liberating space where people are able to freely express themselves artistically, indulge in the things that make them happy, and be their authentic selves. Many people desire lives that are enriched by a variety of experiences, from serene to thrilling, from comforting to confronting, from pulp to profound. Art and fiction can be one of the best ways to live out the full breadth of the human (and inhuman) experience without harming oneself or others. We believe that so long as they’re not causing harm, people should have the right to live the lives they want to live, and we support their right to use art and fiction towards that end. This doesn’t mean that there is no risk in using fantasy as a way of exploring some experiences – some people can struggle with the separation between fantasy and reality, or be misled into thinking some behaviours presented in art and fiction are normal or acceptable in the real world. We don’t believe that censorship is the solution to this problem.

We seek to reduce harm while limiting as few freedoms as possible. We don’t permit malicious behaviors that actively intend to cause harm, such as bullying, while we aim to remedy the harms of other behaviours by addressing their cause. If harm stems from naivety or misunderstanding, we seek to remedy these factors. When harm is caused as an unintended side-effect of an activity with a neutral or positive aim, then instead of banning the activity, we first endeavour to find if the harmful side-effect can be separated from the activity and its benefits. If there is a way to satisfactorily reduce harm without limiting freedoms, that is the path we will take.

We hold that censorship is a poor method for addressing the potential harms caused by art and fiction, not only because it limits freedom, but also because it doesn’t address the underlying problem. If a person isn’t exposed to any art or fiction that could potentially give them harmful ideas, they are still vulnerable as they can acquire those ideas from many other sources. Rather than attempting the impossible task of shielding people from ever encountering difficult or confronting concepts, we maintain that it’s more effective to assist in their education to help prevent them from taking the wrong messages away from these concepts when they do encounter them.

Fanexus endeavours to allow as much artistic freedom as possible (excepting content made with malicious intent as a form of harassment), because we understand that art and fiction are not reality, and things that would be unacceptably dangerous or harmful in real life don’t carry the same risk in fantasy. We know that many people who enjoy harmful and taboo things in art and fiction do not endorse these things in reality, and that vicariously experiencing these things through fantasy is extremely different from experiencing them in real life. We seek to promote this understanding of the distinction between fantasy and reality, so that it’s clear that something presented as enjoyable in fiction is not necessarily something that would be enjoyable or safe to partake in personally.  People should know to think critically about things they encounter in art and fiction before they decide to emulate them in reality.  

There are far more dangerous things on the internet than just morally complex and darkly indulgent fantasy, and Fanexus seeks to provide education to help protect against these threats as well. We intend to create a repository of resources to educate people about the risks they can encounter online, such as predators, scammers, hate movements, and dangerous misinformation. Our aim is to protect people by empowering them with knowledge that will help them in many spheres of life.

Evolve in Response to User Feedback  

Fandom and technology both evolve, and we acknowledge that a platform like Fanexus must evolve with them. We intend to seek direct feedback from our userbase in order to discover what features will assist them in creating and maintaining the content Fanexus is dedicated to. However, while our platform will evolve over time, we pledge to remain committed to the philosophy that motivated its creation.

[uncloseted]

i know you like harry potter, right? i recently read an article called The Danger Of Ron & Hermione's Relationship (bustle) and i never thought about it that way... what do you think?

(Sorry in advance if this answer is a little disjointed) 

In general, I really dislike when people try to argue that Ron and Hermione are “toxic”.  They’re children who are the main (and sometimes only) combatants in a major war.  No, their emotional maturity is not at the level of an adult’s, and no, they don’t always make the best decisions with regards to one another, but I think that’s to be expected given the two above facts.  

I think the Hermione/Ron and Ginny/Harry ships were clearly set up as endgame from the beginning- even six year old me in 1999 could call that (and JKR says it too- “[the Ron/Hermione relationship had] far more to do with me clinging to the plot as I first imagined it, Hermione with Ron.”).  

There are a lot of people who hate Ron for who he is in the movies and forget that his book character has a lot more nuance.  In the movies, yes, his character is largely characterized by being mean to Hermione.  But in the books, he’s all sorts of things- a clever strategist, a loyal, good friend, in awe of Hermione’s intelligence, their guide to the Wizarding World, funny, sensitive, and ambitious, to name a few.  There’s actually a whole trope for this vilification of Ron- it’s called “Ron The Death Eater” (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RonTheDeathEater), and as you might expect from the name, it happens to Ron quite a bit.

I don’t think it’s accurate to say that “Ron Weasley spends the majority of time with Hermione being unkind to her”.  He spends the majority of time with her being her friend; even when we see their fights, it’s because those fights are unusual for them and because they move the plot along.  Ron’s “unkindness” towards Hermione largely comes from jealousy that she’s not interested in him- he’s upset because she went to the ball with someone else, he’s afraid that Hermione will choose Harry over him.  

And Hermione, for her part, isn’t a saint, either.  Ron can be insensitive when he makes jokes; Hermione is insensitive right back when she makes him feel stupid.  She “emotionally tears [Ron] down” just as much as Ron does to her, by tapping into his inferiority complex.  She often belittles him for not understanding things that are obvious to her, and is frequently unwilling to try to see things from his point of view.  For how smart she is, Hermione is incredibly unself-aware and emotionally inept at the beginning of the series, and that impacts her relationships just as much as Ron’s “emotional range of a teaspoon” does (something Hermione actually said about him to his face).  I think there’s also an aspect of that combative relationship that Ron and Hermione like- they’re young, and I think they see it as passionate.  

I think the article’s narrative also ignores that we do see a lot of really tender, caring moments between the two of them, especially after they mature and grow out of the “boys are mean because they like you” phase (which is true to life, whether we like it or not).  Ron only “gets the girl” once he starts being more emotionally mature and treating her well.  Ron can be petty, sure, but to suggest he’s just an abusive husband waiting to happen feels like nonsense to me.  He’s someone who’s shown himself to be incredibly kind, supportive, and loyal to Hermione as well.

Then the author of this article brings up Cursed Child to justify their point, which just shouldn’t be considered canon.  Everyone in Cursed Child is a weird flanderization of themselves and acts in ways that they wouldn’t in the core series.  Cedric Diggory becomes a Death Eater and Voldemort produced a child.  Cursed Child is garbage and shouldn’t be taken seriously at all.

To me, it mostly seems like the author of this article is projecting.  It seems like she just has a chip on her shoulder about an ex she has who is a “Ron Weasley”, and sees herself as a perfect Hermione character who can do no wrong and has to “apologize for who she is”, “suppress herself” and felt like she needed to “fix her Ron”.  To me it seems like she thinks that she deserved better, and that she can blame Harry Potter from preventing her from realizing it earlier (because that’s easier than admitting you made a bad decision).

Look, are Hermione and Ron a perfect couple at age 12, or 15, or 17?  No. Of course not.  But very few couples are.  You have to learn how to grow into and with one another, how to interact with one another in a way that’s healthy, how to honor your partner’s needs even when they’re not what you would need yourself.  Relationships don’t just pop into existence being perfect- they require work.  And I do think we see Ron and Hermione doing the foundation for that work throughout the series, and especially in book 7.  Should JKR have done more to show that Ron’s (and Hermione’s, for that matter) actions in the early books were NOT OKAY and ABUSIVE AND HARASSING?  Maybe.  But I don’t think it was meant to be that deep.  I think it was just a woman who grew up in the 70s writing kids the way they acted when she was a kid herself.  Sometimes the ways kids act are “problematic”, but I think it’s better to show that than to have every character be a paragon of morality.

Also, on a side note, the “JKR REGRETS RON AND HERMIONE TOGETHER” thing that the Bustle author cites was, like a lot of the things she says, taken out of context and blown out of proportion to the actual comment.  I don’t want to be a JKR apologist here, because I do think she holds some awful views, but I think it’s important to get the whole picture when things she’s said get referenced.  In the article, she’s talking about how she doesn’t know if Ron and Hermione could get past the “combative side of [their relationship]” as adults, but then she also says, “oh, maybe she and Ron will be alright with a bit of counseling, you know...they'll probably be fine. He needs to work on his self-esteem issues and she needs to work on being a little less critical.”  She acknowledges that while they both have issues, they can work through them and have a relationship that’s successful. 

Edit to add: I do get where the author of that article is coming from. A lot of little girls are told to put up with bullshit from little boys because “he’s being mean because he likes you” or “boys will be boys”. But I don’t think the Harry Potter series, which models all different types of relationships, can be blamed for that. We should be holding the parents, teachers, coaches, etc. who say those things accountable and asking them to think differently instead of blaming media representations of relationships.

[floralkittygambler]

Reposting for reasons

Response to Honest’s post here: Doing this to spread this awareness more as I know theres a bit of a rift in the critical community - plus I really fucking go on. Im PISSED and I do apologise however it NEEDS urgent addressing. I know people will hate me for it but Im used to hate and honestly? Hating rather than helping to solve the issue only furthers my fucking point here. So yeah this is so more people are aware (no offense to any of those involved in said rift either, but this is an important message. Thank you for understanding and if I can do anything to make all sides comfortable, then please message me and I’ll do my upmost.) “ More awareness of this is needed. Even if it’s your favourite, you can’t justify their shit but rally against another’s shit. Have people tell you you’re experiences arent real or invalid because, like Husk, people have - in real life - shipped you with someone you are far from comfortable with but you still treat them like a person. Because you have basic respect. And people force you to accept harassment, touching, stalking, advances for THEIR satisfaction. People use you for their fantasies. But you’re just a ‘tsundere’ for it. Or you have addiction issues but people think being with another addict will ‘save’ you because you’re apparently too incompetent to save yourself. Love isnt some magic fuckin cure so stop romanticising it as a fuckin saviour. It’s gross and fuckin creepy. Get stalked and have someone NEVER accept your no just because you show youre still decent enough to not treat them shitty or any different from anyone else. Try having someone way older or way younger (both in morally fucked up ways) advance on you and people encourage that. People you’re supposed to feel safe around.

People touch you when you pull away or show discomfort. Follow you home. Have pictures of you and wont accept you dont like them like that and it’s not ‘playing hard to get’ or ‘the thrill of the chase’. Fuck. OFF. In fact, Im not only disappointed in the fandom. Im disappointed in the entire team who some should know better from their OWN personal experiences - or at least the bare minimal of being a fucking adult. Im disappointed in especially females (sorry idk whether girl or woman is more appropriate here-) who statistically are more likely to have experienced something similar at some point in their lives think this is a cute gay moment. No. Angel is made out as a fucking predator - Im not saying he is, Im saying that his persistence is very fucking unwelcome like one. People like Husk dont need that fucking invasiveness. They/We need patience and someone on our level. Angel’s I know are the fuckin polar opposite - and some of them I know are very sexually harassing, including unwanted touching. It’s a shitty way to present gay people. Gays are fuckin people. Some are cunts and some arent. It’s a HUMAN thing. But considering the shit theyve been subjected to, presenting a gay as a victim only to also show them as a perpetrator is insulting! And for those Ive seen argue this about how people like AD wouldnt know how to express their love normally and whatnot? His pig. His best friend. He’s in his fucking 30s. There are literal real life criminals who get molested as kids and then go on to molest kids. Not all who grow up like that turn into nonces. Stop just fucking STOP justifying and romanticising this bullshit! I used to see the good in AD but now he makes me fucking sick. Especially with my verrrrrry fucking real traumas and connections. But fuck me, eh? Because this fictional guy matters so much more. Fuck real victims. And whilst we’re at it, fuck AD too when it suits your fetishes! Sarcasm aside, the fans and the team need to straighten up their abhorrent behaviour. Stolas. Fucking clearly having an affair, knowingly fucking up his daughter’s mental health and bribing a guy into sex who only wants the book and nothing more. He even has a fucking warning button over Stolas- Guys, how do you think any of this is cute? Even the team gross me out- I genuinely see potential and talent and it’s all gone to shit to satisfy horny teens, horny adults, and literally everyone who doesnt for the life of them understand being an adult is more than sex, drugs, violence and swears! I REALLY want to keep enjoying HB/HH but it’s getting harder and harder with such ignorant and bordering lazy creators (note: lazy as in wont do the fucking research or actually listen to real criticism and victims), such despicable fans (yeah, some HDers fuckin mocked that they triggered my ED, yet they had the fucking NERVE to support Angel’s potential ED AND laugh and blame me for me getting treated so badly for actually having the balls to call Angel and the teams hypocrisy. I got told to kill myself, that my problems arent real - oh but Angels apparently is! Which... They *are* but AD isnt real so technically only onlookers will suffer and not a drawing  - and they just excused their toxic behaviours. These people are like “aww poor angie babey!” yet fuckin INSULT sex workers. All this red in Hazbin yet it feels everyone and they mama colour blind. The issues are getting worse and fans are outright becoming EVIL, VILE, Vindictive little bullies - from kids to adults. You SHOULD be ashamed of yourself if you conduct yourself in such a manner. And you need to readjust your attitudes and behaviours because the only fuckers getting hurt are actual fucking victims. Ever been violated and been gaslit so much you STILL fucking question it’s reality? So you drown that shit out yet somehow it’s effects still hit you? Fetishise it. Make it your uwu gae couple goals, you’re no better than people believing Harley and the Joker werent toxic af. If this shit happened to you, most of you would actually SEE where we’re all coming from. Also, stop making gay a fetish - you’re like those creepy old men in the alley heckling lesbians to make out so they can wank off. Gays, no ALL the LGBT+ are fucking people too. So dont give me that bullshit then start turning everything just gay or just straight to mentally wank off to. It’s degrading and dehumanising. And yes, fiction does effect reality. You crush on a fictional character? Mourn one? Support one? Hell, fuckin jerk off to one - that’s affecting reality. Remember how in fiction all blacks were treated as villians? Look how theyre treated IRL. JAWS, great classic unfortunately their was a spike in shark killings over a fucking movie - the shark in the movie wasnt even real for the most part because they dont behave like that! (Also the animatronic was so shit they genuinely had so many issues - I think they even took to naming each one! Some fun trivia there!). Tiger sharks are more nasty than great whites as tiger sharks will hunt and eat a human. Great whites prefer seals and dislike human flesh, they just mistake us for seals. Hell, theres the toothless basking shark - theyre often SWAM WITH by divers for being so friendly. Yet Jaws made people think all sharks are bloodlusting over humans. Slenderman was created for a fucking contest and that influenced a stabbing (NOT Victor’s fault). Watch a horror movie that isnt based on a real life event and tell me that at least ONE has left you peaking over your shoulder. Stella may be a bitch - we dont know for certain - but try getting cheated on. Y’know what? Try growing up in such a broken home like Octavia. Yeah reaaaaaal fucking cute now, huh? Funny how as well y’all petition for male victims to be taken seriously then laugh when fictional males experience this abuse, further adding to stigma. You can be hit on by the hottest mf on the planet but if you arent interested, that should be respected! Also we’ve all been inspired by at least one fictional character so yeah. Yknow, since I was little Ive been fighting for sex worker and homeless rights. But HH/HB treatment of both leave a bitter taste in my mouth. I’ll still fully support sex workers and the homeless, but that’s the fucking effect this show is having. Bearing in mind I wont ever share everything Ive been through - and I shouldnt fucking have to in order to be believed and validated (obvs proof is required in a legal case but that’s a whole other topic). Why should I share MY fucking pain especially when you fuckers have belittled and triggered it more so? We have our rights to our secrets but fuck ME you lot NEED to start acting appropriately and like decent fucking humans. ‘iTs HeLl’ yeah and welcome to Earth- the team and yourselves live HERE. You obide by THESE rules. And as someone with beliefs (and a LOT of ancient fucking texts and studies on this shit) their Hell isnt even a proper Hell! It’s closer to purgatory and even then it’s not. Regardless, it’s a poorly built world with the lore consistently changing per episode and tweet, with many plot holes, and is apparently easy to get into - even via accidentally watching porn according to a stream. If youre gonna parade youre a fucking expert and research into demonology and use real believed figures, at least get THAT right. In fact, Lucifer and Lilith (and Stolas tbf) are ESPECIALLY risky as theyre a lot more complex than most easy access texts will tell you. Likewise, Stolas’s first introduction and main focus is sex. He’s one of the FEW Goetia demons that dont have some involvement in relationship issues at ALL. He’s known for astrology, crystals and herbs but hes also known to aid MONEY troubles (it’s lesser known but it’s true! HB Stolas is an insult to the Prince). Turning Vodou into something evil is vile considering it’s powerful and liberated slaves. Pentagrams are nothing to do with Satan, they’re magic based sigils. Upside down cross is the symbol of a SAINT. It’s just some edgy attempt to trick people into believing they know more than they do. Also you should NEVER dabble and doodle sigils without knowing the meanings or respecting what they behold. Vox and Val, real fuckin cute way to make them look like a stupid fucking highschool drama instead of a fucking SEX TRAFFICKER (note: real pimps often target YOUNG folks too - aka minors - and groom them into sex work. Theres different types of pimp. Viv has shown barely any understanding of ‘the game’ and its a fucking insult to injury. Yes we KNOW what a fucking pimp and prozzie are! We dont need to see it. We need REAL AWARENESS.) and a fucking scheming bastard of a CEO salesman botman. And yet even THEN lets go a step further and make some yandere wuv on boyfweind aboose! Fuck off- Now I love a good anime but these tropes are getting fucking dangerous now. And unrealistic to real love and relationships. Kids nowadays know fuck all on a healthy relationship (neither did the fuckin 50s tbf) and Im seeing more romaticism and glorifying abusive situations. Like the show ‘You’. Ok, there’s a fuckin bloke online who slaughtered innocents and kidnapped yet people commented how cute he is on his IG and that they want to be kidnapped or killed by him next. Dont believe me? Look up Peter Manfredonia Connecticut and the comments people left him and then tell me why shit like whats being presented in HH/HB ISNT fucking concerning - because it is. For a series about redemption, it’s brilliant at the opposite (Quote from the creator herself, Viv has posted that it’s influencing her bad choices. Even as a joke, proof’s in the pudding). And the overall focus on sex in the way Viv does is so immature and really creepy, and this is from an ADULTS perspective. From one adult to another, Im concerned as to why any of them think this is a normal fixation. Then again they’ve hired quite a large amount of dodgy folks and even a child. Most of this shit gets avoided with a basic background check like most companies run. I DO like Hazbin. Or the premise. I love some of the cast and spite the others. In Helluva, I just like a tiny portion of the cast. And I critique it so harshly because Viv DOES need a wakeup slap, grounding to reality, people who arent going to big her up or kiss her arse for once and shape her up to be the best she can be. The actually reach and even surpass her potential. And to reach where you need to be, there’s a lot of harsh lessons youll face. That’s life. Shes chosen one of the most HEARTLESS industries and if she blocks out critique as ‘hate’ then she’s not strong enough and wont last. It’s just another unprepped YanDev again (except I dont believe Viv to be a nonce. Even with her dodgy past and dodgy present, I think her perspective on sex and relationship with sexuality is FAR from healthy BUT I dont believe she’s a pedophile. Ive bled my fair share and so far, I just think her sex perspective isnt healthy or mature for her age. But there’s little to nothing to suggest actual noncery - dont worry about accusations there. But YanDev is totally a dirty predator. Just clearing that up). Viv NEEDS some harshness and stability if she wants to do things right. And it’ll make her fucking cry but if she loves these projects as much as she claims to, then you’ll sacrifice blood, sweat and tears for that shit. Even the strongest points are mediocre at best when properly observed. She CAN do more, but she’ll have to face the harsh music. Viv wont see this, but if she does, I dont care if it upsets her. Why? Because this is that much of an issue - something she’s cultivated - that she needs to take action and not ignore it or be secretive about it. She needs to grow up and get tougher skin. Im not saying this to cause her pain. In fact, I wouldnt waste my fucking limited time if I DIDNT care. Trust me, I have duties to be met at a certain quota every single day. I say this shit only because I give a shit and care. If we met, she’d fucking hate me. But people like me are good for shaping people up to their potential. And we arent always this ‘tough love’ either. But when someone needs that level of harshness to help themselves, we’re not afraid to lose people or cause upset if the results end up being the best for them. If she ever saw this, she needs to re fucking evaluate her message, her story, and those she’s choosing to welcome into her circle. And all Im seeing is one rookie mistake after the other. Her paid patreon discord. Just like the messages Honest has posted on her side of being harassed (not in Vivs fyi), Ive experienced shit and bullying and even stay silent on their for being attacked for a group I fuckin paid to be in and yet I feel isolated. It’s all arsekissing and ‘thank you viv’ (thats an actual channel-) and it feels like a place of borderline worship and people trying to appease her 24/7 whilst kicking others with different opinions down. There’s so many I love but I aint kissin yer fuckin arse. Ask the closest friend I have - we’re fucking raw and wont just side with each other just because. We’ll call each other out if we think they’ve fucked up and then help each other build themselves up better. Because real fuckin people who actually care wont just want to be adored by you. They’ll care enough to point out your bullshit and help you, even if they upset you at the time. They’re real and upfront with you. People like us arent always the easiest to be close to either because we arent afraid of upsetting someone if it’s in their best interest and to help them. Likewise, we dont go out looking for fights either. Most times, we’re fuckin soft bastards- All this shit listed is the fuckin surface level of the real life hell of this fandom. And unsurprisingly, those who experience little to no toxicity have always been higher on that popularity ‘food chain’ - enough admirers and shared opinions that people wanna arse kiss regardless of their OWN feelings as well as neutral perspectives. I’d say you’re the lucky fans, but you’re not. You’re sheltered, and that isnt always the best way to be sadly. As for the fans. If Ive upset you. Well... I dont care. Because many of you have actively sought me out and weaponised my traumas against me. You never cared about my feelings then. Why should I care about yours? Im not doing this out of malice. Im fed up of humans behaving so pathetically yet claiming to be high and mighty. Most of you have been arseholes to those in and out of the community. The victims and non-victims alike. Hardly any of you considered once my real suffering. You put a drawing over a life. Many lives. You had the audacity to tell me Im full of shit. Some even using my real traumas to make a mockery of me and those Im around with a very similar history. Some with traumatic histories that differ from my own. You hardly ever considered the real lives of those effected. So no, Im not sorry for having the fucking balls to this day to still stand up for our rights and give us a voice that’s long been stolen. Im not sorry for being a fucking victim. Im not sorry for saying what desperately NEEDS voicing. And Im not sorry for not conforming to you or any fandom just to belong. We deserve better than to constantly be your fuckin arse monkeys (well... the trope is butt monkey but yknow-) and to be mistreated, misrepresented and harmed by you. You’re no different to the school bullies who give speeches on anti-bullying day. And I hope every single one of you starts looking into yourselves and improving. PS: Depending on the texts you read, Lucifer is said to have been redeemed or to be redeemed. Fun fact to haunt yalls with~ “